Solar energy installers in Massachusetts say the Trump administration’s approval of new tariffs on imported solar-energy components will drive up prices for customers.
Trump is imposing an immediate tariff of 30 percent on most imported solar modules, with the rate declining before phasing out after four years.
"The president's action makes clear again that the Trump administration will always defend American workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses in this regard," U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement announcing the decision.
Like the rest of the country, many solar installers in Massachusetts work with foreign products and worry about the impact higher prices will have on the industry.
"We expected him to do it, and it's going to hurt installations across the country," said Josh Glicksman, director of sales for Lexington-based company Solar Five. "It just continues to make it harder. Internal cost goes higher, which hits us hard. Margins are small, and this just makes it even tougher.”
The Solar Energy Industries Association said the tariff on solar panels will lead to the delay or cancellation of billions of dollars of investment in solar energy and the loss of 23,000 industry jobs this year.
"It's just another hurdle that we have to get over. And we will,” Glicksman said. “It's called the ‘solar coaster,’ and that's what we're on."
But companies that install U.S.-manufactured products are happy about the tariff.
“The competition from overseas and whatnot has really undermined the capabilities [of American solar manufacturers],” said Nate Vignola, the CEO of Leominster-based NV Energy. Vignolla says his company works mostly with panels made in Oregon by the company Solar World.
“The Chinese government has subsidized the solar [photovoltaic] industry for many years and really driven the price down to try to eliminate the competition,” Vignolla said. “So to me this tariff will really help Solar World and maintain their capability in the U.S. market.”
Vignola said, however, that tariffs on foreign competitors mean U.S.-based manufacturers will likely now feel more free to raise their prices.
The new tariffs were criticized Monday by Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey.
“Imposing a tax on solar panels is a direct attack on hundreds of thousands of American blue-collar workers,” Markey said in a written statement. “President Trump’s decision isn’t about domestic manufacturing, it’s about manufacturing an excuse to attack clean energy on behalf of Big Oil."
Markey's statement also noted that over the next three years, the solar industry could have created an estimated 100,000 across the country. In 2016, the senator said, the U.S. created as many solar jobs as those that "exist in the entire coal mining industry today."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
